Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a biodegradable biomass article and method for manufacturing the biomass article.
Description of Related Art
Currently, biomass materials such as byproducts, which may be biodegradable, require hauling to a place of disposal. Some advancement has been made in processing byproducts into value added products. Such processes include treating byproducts with chemicals and physical manipulation such as, grinding or chopping, and compressing or compacting the byproducts. The resulting products may be used for other purposes, for example, fertilizer or mulch, which may differ than the original use of the product from which the byproduct was extracted. However, such efforts for use of byproducts have fallen short of providing a biodegradable product comprised of byproducts and require relatively small amounts of energy to manufacture.
Further, for example, many current construction articles and materials of composition, such as plastics, for example, Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which may be embodied as vinyl siding, are petroleum (oil) based. Such petroleum based materials require extraction of oil, processing of oil, and use of oil in the manufacturing process of the material, wherein the processing steps require expending energy and result in toxic byproducts. Further, when such oil based products are disposed of, they produce oil based waste products which do not readily decay, causing non-biodegradable products in landfills. Non-biodegradable products in landfills are harmful to the environment as they do not break down completely or degrade into a compost material, and remain in the landfill.
Therefore, there is a need for additional and improved value added products generated from biomass byproducts, for example, agricultural byproducts. One need for products generated from biomass material includes products used in building construction. There is further a need for a biomass biodegradable product that is non toxic and can provide attributes such as rigidity, thermal insulation, and sound proofing. Additionally there is a need for a biomass diodegradable product that is petroleum (oil) free, thus reducing oil dependence, the need to refine an oil based material, and dispose of oil based products.